CEA response as a prognostic marker in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients treated with gefitinib or erlotinib

19071 Background: Gefitinib and Erlotinib are oral selective epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors active in advanced NSCLC. CEA has been evaluated as a tumor marker for NSCLC and a correlation between marker response and survival in patients treated with chemotherapy has been observed. Nevertheless, its potential role in the assessment of biological therapies efficacy has been poorly analyzed. Methods: This is a retrospective data analysis from advanced NSCLC patients treated at our institution in two prospective studies: Iressa Expanded Access Program and the Tarceva Open Access phase II study (Target study). Previous studies have defined CEA response and progression as a 20–50% decrease or increase respectively in CEA levels. For our study, we defined CEA response as a decline of ≥20% and CEA progression as an increase of ≥20%, compared with baseline levels. Results: Between April 2001 and October 2006, 231 patients (163 M/68 F) with metastatic NSCLC (67 squamous/81 adenocarcinoma...